We are in the midst of a wasp and hornet invasion up in our area.

Worst I’ve seen.

Get a 2 to 5 gallon bucket.

Fill it 2/3 full of water and add some dish soap.

Stab a piece of raw chicken or beef on a stick and lay it across the bucket.

The buggers gorge themselves and fall into the water and drown.

Those that do get air born, go back to the nest and bring more back with them.

I bought one of those yellow traps and in the course of catching 3 wasps in that, I caught prolly over 300 in the bucket in the same amount of time.

Put over in the corner of the garden, out of the way.

I remove the meat at dark–(cats and skunks) and put it out in the morning.

Yeah, the guy at the hardware store said this is going to be a bad year for the suckers.

That is a good idea on how to catch wasps and hornets.
My Mom uses a 5 gallon bucket and some bird seed at the bottom to catch mice. She won’t kill them. The jump in eat their fill then can’t jump out. In the morning she takes the bucket and dumps it in the woods. I think the same mice make their way back to her garage and basement but she is not convinced.
My wasp story. I setup my gargoyle fountain the other day and turned the pump on and got just a trickle of water. I looked in the bottom of the statue and there was a bit of grass poking out the 1/2 copper pipe? I connected the pump hose to the other end hoping to back flush the grass out and nothing but then a big black non to happy soaked down wasp came out. I blasted it with the hose and off it went. I had to use a piece of wire to poke and the water pressure to clean out the pipe. I couldn’t believe how much and how tightly packed it was.
Crazy wasps.

I’ve used the hanging traps to good effect, I have 4 of them around the yard, just replace the bait at the beginning of spring and dump them out every couple months.

Todd, one winter I was cleaning up a bike that had been stored outdoors, and noticed the hollow of the handlebar seemed to be stopped up, using a stiff rod I had to remove a wasp nest it, was almost completely full and like you say, packed tight.

I guess I’m not the only one battling these buggers this year. I thought it was just me. I have the hanging traps and they have done a good job so far.

if you don’t want them to go into places just use a squirt of WD 40 they don’t like the smell of it and leave the area alone up to a year!

if you don’t want them to go into places just use a squirt of WD 40 they don’t like the smell of it and leave the area alone up to a year!

Have not seen many this year in Nebraska, not sure why. Same with toads.

Jerry Barnes said:

Have not seen many this year in Nebraska, not sure why. Same with toads.

Lots of wasps, they gather around our creek for a bit of libation. Funny to watch them trying out different rocks as a perch to find the one that is the easiest.

More chicken, please. It’s to die for!

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jebouck/yjwasp.jpg)

The yellow jackets won’t let the Baldfaces eat, so I have to trap them with apple juice as a bait.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jebouck/baldies.jpg)

Has Ken read this? He has wasps.

Ric Golding said:

Has Ken read this? He has wasps.

Just a thought.

Speaking of flying nasties, yesterday around dinner time, we noticed a swarm of honey bees all gathered around this bush in the side yard,

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/kenbrunt/swarm04.jpg)

This morning the wife asked me what the heck was that black thing in the bush.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/kenbrunt/swarm05.jpg)

All those bees that were buzzing around yesterday were all clumbed together in a big ball on one of the branches.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/kenbrunt/swarm02.jpg)

Weird!

I think there trying to stay warm.

Somewhere in the center of that mess is a queen…This looks like a mating swarm.

Honey bees are good things to have around!

Mark V said:

Somewhere in the center of that mess is a queen…This looks like a mating swarm.

Honey bees are good things to have around!

That’s what I figgered…I have noticed a few buzzing around inside the garage. That isn’t a good place to have them around…

Ken,Nice landscape.

Ron Tremblay said:

Ken,Nice landscape.

Thank you. I, however, can’t take credit. My son is the professional in the family. I do provide the yard, he provides the plants…